


Salvage

by Redshirt451



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate History, Gen, Self-Insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-06
Updated: 2020-03-06
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:26:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23035480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redshirt451/pseuds/Redshirt451
Summary: 13 and a disaffected companion find themselves in a timeline that might have been





	Salvage

“Come on, what happened? Try to remember!” I had to restrain myself to keep from shouting at the old woman. She, for her part, was more concerned with the pitiful looking sandwich she had managed obtain, likely made from one of the various piles of refuse that littered what passed for a city. I continued to press on. She was the only person who seemed old enough to remember what things had been like before whatever disaster had befallen what I could only assume had been London.  
I had first noticed something amiss when the TARDIS had landed. The blasted device had gone off on its own and the Doctor hadn’t been able to determine exactly where we were. Not that she had tried that hard, in my increasingly disgruntled opinion. She had simply declared this place to be an ill used Earth colony and had gotten out to make friends with the locals. I had tried to share in her enthusiasm, but between the haggard cops in worn-out uniforms, architecture that looked like it was dreamed up by Orwell in a vivid nightmare, and streets that brought back memories from my visit to London oh so many years ago, I knew more had to be going on. I had wandered away from everyone else to interrogate the locals. The Doctor hadn’t really bothered to stop me. Being stuck in a box with someone of practically the opposite personality and worldview does not tend to engender warm feelings.  
“We don’t have Jews no more” the woman mumbled. I started. “What? What do you mean you don’t have Jews anymore?” I asked, leaning in closer. The smell of her rotting clothes had made me keep my distance, but that didn’t matter now. I was getting somewhere. “The Germans took them when they were here. Just took them. Now we don’t have them anymore”. I pressed her for more. “Is the UK all that’s left? What about America?”. “Aye, the Yanks are still over there.” She said carelessly, weakly gesturing towards the grey sea behind us, “not that they’ve done us any good.” The full picture began to form in my mind. This wasn’t the future and it certainly wasn’t a colony. This was an alternate present earth, where America had stuck to isolationism and the Germans had managed to invade, or more likely starve out, Great Britain. Probably, given the broken down surroundings, the Germans had tried to fight the Soviets and the Americans and a nuclear war between the three superpowers had been sparked off. The UK had gotten the less of it, only enough to make life mostly unlivable. I shuddered at what Europe and North America must have looked like now.  
It was at that point that I noticed the two police officers walking towards me. “Sir, I’m afraid you’ll have to come with us” said the older looking one as the younger continued walking towards me, handcuffs at the ready. “May I ask why” I said, trying to conceal my anger. I suspected why already. “It’s best not to disturb her” the younger one said, motioning to the old woman, “She gets some funny ideas sometimes and doesn’t know to keep them to herself.”. The woman was blissfully unaware of the whole situation, happily eating her trash sandwich.  
I thought back to the pistol I had concealed. The Doctor would have had my head if she knew about it and I didn’t want to think about what she’d do to me if I shot two cops. I also wasn’t sure I cared at this point. Those in power here, and likely the populace as well, didn’t want anyone knowing that they had turned over their neighbors to the death camps and were willing to rough up strangers who asked too many uncomfortable questions. Being from the South, I was familiar with this type of situation.  
I stared straight at the older cop with a hard look. “Did you turn them in? Get some extra food rations for reporting the Rosenbergs across the street?” His passive expression turned to a scowl. “Don’t make us start before the lads at the station get their chance. Wouldn’t be fair to them. It’s their job after all.” He let out a mirthless laugh at his own joke. I looked from him to the younger. His makeshift uniform made him look more like a Walmart Greeter than a law enforcer. Dark circles were around his haggard looking eyes, barely attached to his thin form. I was struck with a sudden pang of sympathy for him. He wasn’t much better off than the old woman, the only difference being that he had enough of a mind left to realize his wretched condition.  
I slowly walked up to him and, in a flurry of motion that surprised even myself, grabbed the handcuffs from him and threw them over the cliffside. The man weakly tried to attack me, but I blocked his feeble blows with ease. I finally gave him a push and he crumpled backwards and lay on the ground, staring up at me with helpless hatred. I walked past him and the old woman, still happily eating her lunch, and stopped to look at the older officer. He continued to scowl, but he didn’t attempt to stop me. “If you breathe a word of what she told you..” I interrupted. “Would it matter at this point?” I asked coldly. He stared at me for a few more moments, then turned his head away. “No. No I don’t suppose it would”, he said under his breath. I continued to walk back towards town. “It was the Sommerfelds.” I turned back to him. “We needed the food. They would have been found anyway”, he said with a resigned tone. I turned away and kept walking. Whatever I could have said wouldn’t have mattered. He had half a century to justify himself. I wouldn’t breakthrough now.  
I met the Doctor at the TARDIS near the city center, leaning against the TARDIS door. “Did you find out what this place is?” She asked. I noticed a concern and sorrow in her voice I hadn’t heard before. “Unfortunately yes. Did you?” “Ditto”, she replied with a remorseful sigh. I leaned back against the TARDIS, parallel to her, and stared at the city. Neither of us were able to look the other in the eye. “You know, there’s more than just practical reasons for why I don’t travel across timelines”, she said, turning her head towards me. I continued to stare at the crumbling metropolis, its decaying buildings hollowed out by the few remaining residents. “The multiverse contains the sum of all possible choices. Sometimes those choices aren’t pleasant to see.” We both looked at each other with resigned smiles. “Come on, let’s go home.” she said, climbing back into the TARDIS. “Maybe you can show me how to aim with that gun of yours.” I let out a small chuckle at that and climbed in after her.


End file.
